A birthday to remember
by Reduce-the-damage
Summary: Lumina and Verona set off to buy their lovable master a present.


**AN: A much lighter story than my previous one I've written this time, no surgery, but still a semi happy experience for the fraccions of Szayel: Lumina and Verona.**

It wasn't just another day in Las Noches, in fact it was a very special day. What makes this day so special, was simply because it was a certain pink hair espada's birthday. Szayel figured nobody knew which was good to him, he didn't like being bothered with the fake smiles, and more than friendly conversations the other arrancars had given to him on past occasions.

He prefer to be given the cold shoulder as well as many eyes looking at him with disgust. Recently coming back from a mission the Octava returned with a weary look in his eyes, taking a slowly paced stroll back to his lab. Finally getting to his door, he opened it to find two overjoyed fraccions, scrambling at his side. The one obese fraccion greeted the scientist with a bow then pointed over to a chair.

"Szayel Aporro sama, you look awfully tired. Why don't you sit down in that chair and rest for a bit?", the fraccion chirped.

Szayel closed his eyes while placing his hand on this throbbing head then said, "Perhaps that's a good idea, that mission did take a lot of energy out of me."

The 8th espada walked over to where the chair stood and sat down on it, propping his legs up on to another chair just like a foot rest.

"Tell me, had anything happen when I was gone that I should know about... Lumina? Verona?"

The two, whom were called Lumina and Verona both stared at each other, not certain what to say.

The pink one grew impatient waiting for a response, opened his eyes and in a frightful tone said, "When I ask you a question, I expect you to give me an answer, not to stare at one another or even at me with such a dumbfounded look on your face!"

Verona frowned at this and got on his knees while Lumina shielded herself expecting to be hit in some sort of way.

Szayel looked down at the sight before him, convinced nothing good will come from both of his assistants being upset.

He decided to use a soft toned voice thinking if they didn't sense he was mad, it would get them out of his sight a lot quicker.

" Listen forget what I said earlier, for now I think I just need to be alone and like one of you hinted... I need to rest."

Lumina grabbed Verona's hand and picked him up off from the ground. Both fraccions dared not to speak, and soon walked to another room.

The espada, satisfied with the result got up from the chair and thought it would be a good idea to take a shower.

Walking over to the bathroom, while undressing he heard whispering but thought nothing of it at the time, and soon went on his way to inside the bathroom where he locked the door just to be safe from various peekers.

Standing in the shower with warm water soaking into his pink hair, thoughts started to race though his minds.

_And to think, I thought this might relax me... it appears I was wrong..._

Cleansing his body with soap and soon rinsing his body off after, he wrapped the towel around his waist, feeling a lot cleaner, he proceeded to open the door when he heard a small knock.

Opening the door Szayel recognized it was both Lumina and Verona standing there with a shameful look on both of their faces.

Szayel, was the first one to speak, "How many times must I tell you... when I am in here to leave me alone, I could of been doing something private for instance in here ."

Soon he realized what he said, hoping that what he just said wouldn't get brought up. After all, it could be interpreted in many ways, the scientist shook his head at the thought and continued to gaze down on his fraccions who had done wrong.

Lumina shuddered " W- we are sorry Szayel Aporro sama but we have come to ask of you a request.

The Octava's eyes harden once more. He tilted his head to rest it on the door frame and said, "Well after the rule you just broke I'm not sure..."

_This would be a good opportunity to get them out of here since I wish to relax after all, this has been a shitty day thus far..._

The espada motioned for Verona and Lumina to move aside so that he could walk to his closet, while doing so he said, " I suppose I could, what is your request?"

Lumina was suprized by his quick change of heart and stood there in silence. Verona, however answered Szayel's question without hesitation stating " We wish to go to the uh, world of the living, to do s- some site seeing and we would be very honored if you allowed us to go."

Szayel, now in his closet closed the door for some privacy to get dressed, soon reopened the door and picked up where the conversation left off " I had been there for the mission I was on, and let me tell you it's not as exciting as you think it is, but if that is your wish you may do so."

Now sporting a white t shirt and a pair of light blue faded jeans Szayel once again walked past both fraccions, running several fingers through his hair, and was desperately searching for a mirror to view himself.

Showing a pissed expression on his face, the scientist was kicking himself in his own mind for failing to remember what had happen to it.

During his mission to the human world, he was in charge of a hollow count. Not wanting to look suspicious he managed to create counterfeit money used in the human world called "Dollars." Dollars were these green paper like slips that allowed you to purchase anything you wanted in the human world. Using the money he went to several clothing shops, bought some outfits, then decided to lay low by renting a room at a classy hotel. He would make a few trips in and out of the hotel, monitoring how many hollows were lurking about as well as keeping track of how many humans came out during the day versus the night.

One day he was walking to the nearest candy shop when suddenly a vicious gust of wind blew past Szayel, making him lose grip of the sheet he kept his calculations on. Quickly running after it, he tried to catch up but failed to do so due to the fact the streets and side walks were very crowded. Feeling very sick that all his work went to waste, he decided to go back to the hotel to take a nap. After waking up a few hours later, he began his search over. Going out in what still seemed like day light, then during night time. The whole process took a week, and if the accident hadn't occurred it would of been only five days. With Szayel being in such a hurry with packing he forgot his mirror he bought from one of the shops, left sitting on the bed waiting for a new owner to find use for it.

Now Lumina and Verona stood and watched their master throw a temper tantrum like they never have seen before.

"Damn, Damn, Damn, Damn ," echoed though out the whole lab.

The octava, realizing he couldn't control his temper, went over to his dirty clothes and found the pocket where the money was. Counting how much there was in his head, he went over to where Lumina and Verona stood and extended his arm out to them.

" The humans call this "money" you can buy various things with this in the human world. The things I have in my hand now are known as dollar bills, and this," he held out his other hand and opened it.

"Is called change, they are coins that are too, money. You are free to spend it however you like."

Lumina and Verona stared up at there master in awe knowing that this was a big responsibility on their part.

Lumina grabbed the money out of the pink one's hand and the nearest bag and placed it inside. Verona then took the bag from Lumina and slung it over his shoulder. Szayel, seeing that they were content, opened up a portal to the world of living and watched both fraccions leave him with cheerful smiles across their face.

Finally arriving at the human world both Lumina and Verona looked all around them. They landed in what appeared to be an alley way, surrounded by trash cans, and stray animals that ran amuck.

Verona shook his head from getting distracted and spoke to Lumina, " So what should we do first Lumina? Should we go searching for the mirror daddy was complaining about earlier?"

Lumina scratched the back of her head and shrugged, " I dunno, master did seem to care about that mirror a lot, but we have to find him a present for his birthday... That is the reason why we asked to come here. What things does Szayel Aporro sama like?"

Both obese fraccions thought and thought for a long while until one of them spoke, "Candy!?" Lumina exclaimed.

Verona looked at Lumina with a happy grin. "That's right daddy did say he was going to a candy store, plus I've seen him eat the stuff lots of times, but where do we go to get some of the yummy candy."

Lumina looked around then grabbed Verona's hand and started to tug on it. " I has an idea, we can ask a human and with that, both fraccions exited the alleyway and found out that they were on something called a sidewalk. Verona spotted the various people Szayel told them about and rushed off to confront one with Lumina in toe.

Getting enough courage Verona tugged at a woman in a coat who appeared to be talking to something in her ear. Growing curious the woman told the device "to hold on" and she bent down to Verona's level and asked what the child had wanted.

Verona, happy with the lady, asked her where the candy store was.

The lady who's eyes widened, smiled and pointed down a street and told Verona it was around a corner.

Both Lumina and Verona thanked the lady for her kindness by giving her a quick bow then set off to go to the candy store.

Doing what the lady had said and arriving at their destination Lumina and Verona found themselves standing in front of a store. It was the first store they've seen in their entire lives and the first store they had entered. Growing anxious, Lumina turned the knob on the door. Both fraccions entered the store hearing the door closed behind them. Hearing the bell on the door, a worker came out from behind the counter to greet them.

The man wore a green shirt and black jeans, his face showed age and a scar had been carved across his right cheek. Displaying a beaming smile, the man then pointed to his name tag.

" Welcome children, my name is Shiro Amano and I am the proud owner of this humble shop. What can I get you today, you two don't seem like your from around here... Perhaps tourist?"

Lumina and Verona both shook their head, taking in Amano's hospitality Lumina said, "Well, Amano san we came here to get an item called chocolate. Do you sell any here?"

Mr. Amano laughed, "This whole shop is dedicated to chocolate I posses every brand known to man. Is there a particular one your searching for?"

Verona frowned at this and whispered into Lumina's ear, "What are we going to do, I only thought there was one chocolate... I see daddy eating it all the time, just that one."

Lumina fidgeted with her hands now displaying a worried look on her face. Shiro noticed this and walked over to where both fraccions stood. " Are you ok, what's the matter?"

Lumina, still displaying a look of panic said very sadly, "We don't know what kind of chocolate to get our master. He likes a certain kind but we don't know what it's called."

Shiro took the word "master" as some sort of alternative name for a guardian and spoke " You don't happen to have anything on you that could possibly help us, do you?"

Both fraccions sunk into a depression when suddenly Lumina got an idea, grabbing the bag off of Verona and rummaging inside. Pulling out all of it's contents, on to a counter, both fraccions were searching for a sign. Dumping the bag completely, they found a distinct wrapper that fell out of the bag. Verona's eyes grew happy again realizing what they found was the answer. Lumina then took the wrapper over to Shiro, who took the wrapper from her and started to examine it.

Shiro looked it over, it was a gold wrapper along with a brown paper attached to the inside.

" Ferrero Rocher" Shiro then took the wrapper with him and walked to the back of the store disappearing along with it.

Lumina and Verona showed confusion and stood there waiting for a possible answer. Soon the silence was interrupted with foot steps coming back to where Verona and Lumina stood.

Now standing before them was Shiro, who wore a sincere grin and with him, was a box.

The guy then bent down to the fraccions level saying, " This... I just received this morning through the mail, very few stores end up with such things such as this due to its popularity. I must say your master has good taste when it comes to chocolate."

Opening the box, the obese fraccions soon saw it was a sample box containing all of the Ferrero Rocher, flavors. It was an assortment of fifty chocolates. Some displaying the same wrapper they found, while others had similar ones but with different colors, or designs.

Seeing Lumina's and Verona's faces light up with even more happiness, Shiro continued " This would be perfect since you may not be sure about the flavor he likes or if he's grown tired of the same flavor."

Lumina bowed, "So how much would you want for this- this uh box?"

Shiro stopped to think, rubbing his chin, he soon looked to be in deep thought. He then thought of a price.

"How does $30.00 dollars sound?"

Verona quickly went over to where the bag and money was scattered. Knowing how to count because Szayel taught him along with addition and subtraction, He soon figured out all he needed would be three ten dollar bills. Picking up the bills he brought it over to where Shiro stood and then exchanged the bills for the box.

" It was a pleasure doing business with the two of you, Im glad I was able to help you with your problem."

Verona and Lumina bowed again, waved goodbye to the shop keeper and went on there way to there next destination.

Asking another human where mirrors where sold at, they arrived at a fancy looking store.

Lumina tugged at Verona's arm and said, " This looks like a store daddy would shop at... lets go in and find a nice mirror for him."

Verona nodded in agreement and both fraccions went inside the store.

*Back in Szayel's lab*

Szayel, now brushing his teeth wondered what was taking his fraccions so long.

_What on earth could be taking them so long..._

*Back in the living world*

Verona and Lumina went through countless isles and rooms looking for the one thing they came for.

In the distance a worker saw their desperate search and decided to assist them.

The girl tapped the one fraccion on the shoulder, nearly scarring Lumina out of her skin.

Lumina looked up to see a girl with black hair and violent eyes staring down at her.

" Can I help you find something, you seemed like you were having trouble."

Both obese fraccions nodded and Verona said, " Yes we are looking f- for something called a mirror."

The girl smiled then pointed to one of the rooms the fraccions have already been at.

"There located in that room, here I'll show you."

Using a hand motion, she beckoned for the children to follow her. Leading them to where all the mirrors were kept, she stopped and turned to them.

With their mouths agape, Verona and Lumina stared in disbelief of how many mirrors there were along with shapes, sizes, and colors.

Spotting something automatically, Lumina pointed to a what looked to be a large body mirror.

The girl looked to where Lumina pointed out.

" Oh that mirror is on clearance as well as on sale. It used to be 40 dollars but is now only 25 dollars, it seems nobody has a use for such a large mirror, I don't see why not, I find it to be a beautiful mirror."

Both fraccions stared at it, taking notice of it's thin, pink, border surrounding the whole mirror. Lumina and Verona both looked at each other and exclaimed, "perfect!"

The girl then took the mirror and rung it up at the cash register, put the mirror in a big bag and handed it to Verona while Lumina paid the lady.

Carrying now the mirror and chocolate, Lumina and Verona decided to go back to the alleyway they arrived in, but spotted a familiar face.

It was Szayel dressed in his casual attire he wore when they left.

"Master must be looking for us, maybe we took too long," Verona chocked, tears forming in his eyes.

The scientist found them right away, while Verona hid the chocolates and Lumina hid the mirror in her bag.

"There you two are, Why were you guys taking this long? It's been over 2 hours!"

Verona sensed the anger in his voice and started to cower in fear, leaving Lumina to come up with an explanation.

Lumina gulped, "Well you see- we lost track of time with site seeing and we just uh didn't realized... we both are very sorry."

Szayel still irritated turned his back and walked to the alleyway.

Afraid of what Szayel may do, the fraccions followed him, both shuffling, and hunched over.

Opening another portal Szayel took one last look at his fraccions, and went inside the portal. Lumina and Verona soon followed after. Now back into the lab, the espada walked over to the chair and sat down once again. Lumina and Verona were froze in fear not sure how to go about approaching the situation.

" Now then tell me, what are you hiding from me?," the octava then propped up his head with his hand.

Lumina took the bag off her shoulder and set it on the floor. She started to pull out the items but Verona stopped her.

Verona then looked at Szayel and said, " You see Szayel Aporro sama we knew it was y- your birthday and we thought it would be nice of us to get you something, that's why we requested to go to the human world to get you a gift."

Lumina began taking the box of chocolates out first. Then the mirror but having the bag still covering it.

Szayel's eyes widen, he wasn't expecting this and soon shifted his body position to pay full attention to what was going to occur next.

Setting the box down in the pink haired espada's lap, Lumina slowly started to move back curious on what the espada would do.

Looking down on his lap, the octava noticed something was special about it and opened it. Examining it up close, he noticed what lied inside was his favorite brand of chocolate, Ferrero Rocher. Looking up from the box to his fraccions, he motioned for them to come forward.

The fraccions did as they were told and both smiled.

The scientist still wore a serious look in his face and proceeded to say, " How did you get this? How did you know? Why did you bother?"

Lumina was the first one to respond back, " We went to the store you told us about in your story. Then we figured it out by there being a leftover wrapper in your bag."

Verona thrilled, added in' " We bothered because it is your birthday Szayel Aporro sama, and we wanted to see you happy, we felt bad that nobody ever comes to visit you..."

Szayel acknowledged the comment, and let out a long sigh, " I see, well your concern is appreciated, but you should know birthdays are less than an importance to me. I view them as just another day..."

Both Verona and Lumina suddenly plunged into despair but soon picked themselves up. The two obese fraccions lifted up the next present for there precious pink haired espada.

The low ranked espada noticed the trouble they were having and got up, then lifted the heavy object up half way to his height. Lifting the bag off of the object, he soon realized it was a mirror. Not just a mirror, a long body mirror along with it came with a beautiful light pink border caressing the mirror all over the edges.

Suprized, but happy the 8th espada let a happy look shine on his face, then turned to Lumina and Verona.

"You even went through the trouble of getting me this?"

Lumina nodded hoping that their master was happy and approved what they had done for him.

" Yes we knew you were mad about a mirror earlier, so we made sure we got you the best one they had."

Szayel's eyes soften at the comment, taking the mirror he let it rest on one of the bathroom walls. Adjusting it to his liking, he viewed himself in the mirror.

_I look perfect, just as I thought_

Coming out of the bathroom he then went back to his chair and unwrapped three of the chocolates and walked over to were his fraccion were.

" Here." he said, as he held out his hand.

Lumina and Verona took what was in his hand and now in theirs, stared at it.

Szayel looked to see their reaction, and mused, "What's the matter... aren't you going to eat it?"

Lumina and Verona plopped the ball of chocolate into their mouths and slowly chewed. The Octava smirked and did the same.

Szayel, now finished with his said, " So how was it? What came to your minds?"

The fraccions looked at each other and remarked at the same time, "delicious, How about yours master?"

The question made Szayel form a laugh in the back of his throat, and proceeded to say, " It tasted like pure ecstacy, nothing is better than that."

Lumina and Verona stared at each other in utter confusion.

"What does that mean Szayel Aporro sama?" said Verona.

The 8th espada smiled and said, " Sorry it's another word like delicious..."

Lumina and Verona nodded, and both screamed aloud " Happy birthday Szayel Aporro sama!"

The pink one then patted both of his fraccions on the head, and whispered a quick, "Thank you."

With that he walked off to get ready for bed thinking that this would be something to remember after all.

**AN: Well this was written write after the dark story I've written just a day ago. This story had many fun moments to write. Although it came out longer than expected, I am happy about the out come of this story. Quite a change from the dark story to this semi happy one. Again as I said in all of my stories, reviews would be greatly appreciated.**


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